The Totally Unnecessary Remake Of 'The Raid: Redemption' Has A Director

Gareth Evans’s action thriller The Raid: Redemption was arguably one of the best movies made in 2011, depending on whether or not you like watching breathtaking suspense and nonstop mind-blowing ass-kicking. Naturally, because it was a foreign film, American studios heard about the buzz around it and started throwing giant burlap sacks with dollar signs on them into vans in order to secure the rights to a remake. What they could have done was simply release The Raid: Redemption as is on 3,000 screens here in the U.S., but then how would they profit from making all of the characters drink Mountain Dew while they fight in front of giant Samsung posters?

Screen Gems ended up securing the rights for the remake, and despite the fact that The Raid 2, which looks just as awesome as the first one, hits American theaters on March 28, the studio has its re-Raid director. According to Deadline, The Expendables 3 director Patrick Hughes has finally agreed to a deal.

The script is from Out Of The Furnace writer Brad Ingelsby and original producer XYZ Films is also producing the new one. Evans, who has already done a sequel, The Raid 2: Berandal, that comes out this month via Sony Pictures Classics, is executive producing and the original fight choreographers are involved too.

Sure, it’s good news that Evans and the fight choreographers are all on board so the ass-kickery looks as awesome as it did the first time (three whole years ago), but why not just Evans the keys to a new franchise of his choosing? Let the guy tell a new story. Leave the stupid, unnecessary remakes to Michael Bay’s production company and his underground training center for directors whose DNA he has enhanced with a genetic concoction that features his brain cells and a Doritos tongue swab from Brett Ratner. The future is terrifying, friends.

after oldboy i can no longer defend amazing foreign films being remade…i was hoping for another departed type situation, but naaaah, spike had to fuck it up. i dont understand the reason to remake this one tho, didnt it play in theaters here? and what can an american perspective add that wasnt in the original…the departed justified itself by being a different movie in tone and in cultural balance that infernal affairs..this seems like its going to be the exact same movie..much like the terrible looking district 13 remake

@Cornelius I haven’t seen Dredd yet, but my wife – who has generally terrible taste in movies and wouldn’t recognize an homage if it hit her in the face – watched it on netflix and started asking me if we hadn’t already seen it, and then said, “no wait, that movie we watched where the like SWAT team invades the hotel and the spoiler is the spoiler of spoiler? This is like that move.”

What I’m trying to say is, if my wife saw the resemblance, they must have basically cut footage from The Raid into Dredd and CGI’ed different helmets and faces.

@procrasty Actually after I typed this I discovered about the Dredd remake being in development for ages, apparently it was supposed to be Robocop before it was Dredd. Still, Gotta give the Welsh the benefit of the doubt, it’s basically all they have.